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Syn2Cat and its members are supporting the first international conference dedicated to Open Source Software that will be held at the Terres Rouges buildings, Belval, the 1st of October 2025. The conference aims to bring together local and international actors of the Open Source ecosystem specialised in areas such as Artificial Intelligence, CyberSecurity and EdTech. ...read moreThe post Open Source Conference Luxembourg appeared first on syn2cat.
We are happy to host our first RUST Lang Workshop in Luxembourg on Saturday 23 Aug 2025 8h00-20h00 physically at our Hackerspace.The post RUST Lang Workshop in Luxembourg appeared first on syn2cat.
HaxoGreen 2016 banner
HaxoGreen is just around the corner, taking place july 28th to july 31st. This years edition is already the fifth of this small but very cozy and nice hacker camp, and unfortunately there are no tickets left.
More info can be found on the Wiki, also there's @HaxoGreen and #haxogreen on Twitter as well as #haxogreen on IRC on Freenode. If you're an attendee and want to give a talk or hold a workshop there's still time! There are some slots just waiting for you. Contact Orga at hello[_at_]haxogreen.lu and go for it :)
The Beurer BM58
Some years ago I bought a Beurer BM58 blood pressure meter to occasionally, well, measure blood pressure. (Though I can think of a lot of neat things to build out of it shall it break...) It came with a USB connection, has two users and can save up to 60 records (per user?). It also came with a Windows only software.
Being a Linux person I've asked the Internet if anybody else maybe has published something to read out data from it. I've come across two projects, none of which are compatible unfortunately. There are at least two versions of the Beurer BM58 out there:
I've got the latter one. The projects I've found are:
Atbrask also has written up some information about the USB protocol that device uses, some parts are similar to what my device does.
So I needed to reverse the protocol and throw together some python. I've fired up a VirtualBox with M.S. Windows as well as Wireshark with the usbmon module. Never having done much lower level USB stuff this was all new for me, but it was fun and I learned something on the way yay!
You can find the code on GitHub. It uses PyUSB, you'll need a 1.x version. Debian Jessie comes with 0.4.3, but 1.0.0 is available in the backports.
What it does:
What it currently does not:
The protocol is straight forward. First the device wants to be initialized some bytes and send you its identifier. Every USB request is 8 bytes long, and usually only the first byte in the request changes while the rest is padded with 0xf4. For example to initialize you'd send:
0xaa 0xf4 0xf4 0xf4 0xf4 0xf4 0xf4 0xf4
0xa4 0xf4 0xf4 0xf4 0xf4 0xf4 0xf4 0xf4
0xa5 0xf4 0xf4 0xf4 0xf4 0xf4 0xf4 0xf4
0xa6 0xf4 0xf4 0xf4 0xf4 0xf4 0xf4 0xf4
0xa7 0xf4 0xf4 0xf4 0xf4 0xf4 0xf4 0xf4
The device will respond with the identifier "Andon Blood Pressure Meter KD"
Ol' Wireshark looking at USB
You can then ask it for the number of records in storage:
0xa2 0xf4 0xf4 0xf4 0xf4 0xf4 0xf4 0xf4
Which it will answer with, well, the number. Then you can download the records by incrementing the second byte, starting at 0x01. For example first three records:
0xa3 0x01 0xf4 0xf4 0xf4 0xf4 0xf4 0xf4
0xa3 0x02 0xf4 0xf4 0xf4 0xf4 0xf4 0xf4
0xa3 0x03 0xf4 0xf4 0xf4 0xf4 0xf4 0xf4
It'll answer with something like this, converted to decimal:
100 55 60 2 3 26 38 8
For some reason the systolic and diastolic values need to be incremented by 25. They are the first two, so incremented the record looks like this:
125 80 60 2 3 16 38 8
Device downloading records
| Nr. | Example | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 125 | Diastolic |
| 2 | 80 | Systolic |
| 3 | 60 | Pulse |
| 4 | 2 | Month |
| 5 | 3 | Day |
| 6 | 16 | Hour |
| 7 | 38 | Minute |
| 8 | 8 | No Idea ;) |
I don't know yet what the 8. byte is, the value was always 8. Maybe the year? I don't even know if you can set a year on the device, but most probably yes. My clock wasn't correct and I didn't bother to much so I can't correlate.
Then you can close the device cleanly:
0xf7 0xf4 0xf4 0xf4 0xf4 0xf4 0xf4 0xf4
0xf6 0xf4 0xf4 0xf4 0xf4 0xf4 0xf4 0xf4
What's important is that de device only stays active for like 30 seconds after it's plugged in. I didn't realize this and it took me much time debugging why my USB connection wouldn't work. Always times out, but it also times out if you send the wrong stuff to it. Also if you don't terminate cleanly you can't requery the device without replugging.
Keep that in mind.
So, what's left to do?
Graph ALL the things!
Schmeckte dann doch leider nicht so gut wie erhofft. Hatte nen komische s�sslichen Abgang. Klarer Favorit unter den Mate Getr�nken bleibt also Florapower :)
Jooo... da der Hackerspace total �berf�llt war konnte wir unsere Laptops auch nicht auspacken. Deshalb fanden wir uns schnell vor der T�r wieder. (Wo es dann sozialer herging). Man konnte mal mit den Typen dort quatschen. Wir trafen auf 2 Deutsche die jedoch ihre Sprache nicht m�gen und lieber Englisch mit uns reden wollte. Naja mir egal. Einer von den zwei war auch schon gut dabei mit dem Alk. Wollte zuerst nen Faustkampf (ja der sagte Fistfight^^) mit jemanden und p�belte dann die Einheimische an die gerade vor der T�r parken wollten. Der gute Br�sseler verstand aber kein Englisch. Also musste unsere Gruppe mit breitem Luxemburgischen Akzent den Typen auf Franz�sisch bequatschen. Ist echt keine so clevere Idee vor nem Haus voller Hacker zu parken ;) Der Typ verstand dies auch und machte sich weg. Wir sprachen als noch das ein oder andere mit den zwei Deutschen und machten uns dann gegen Mitternacht auf den Heimweg ins Hotel.
Der letzte Tag war echt kurz. Morgens kurz vor 12 kamen wir glaub ich auf der FOSDEM an. Blieben dann bis zirka 5 oder so um dann wieder mit dem Taxi zur�ck zu fahren um den Zug zu erwischen. Ach da war noch diese #NoHomo Demo oder so. (kleine Insider hier *gnihi*).
Im Zug kam es dann wie es kamen musste. Kein Platz f�r 3 Hacker. Wir standen also da dumm im Flur herum als die Durchsage kam, dass man auf sein Gep�ck aufpassen soll, weil Taschendiebe im Zug unterwegs seien. Tolle Info. Sowas will man in nem �berf�llten Zug h�ren. Beim ersten Halt ging es dann Leeroy-Jenkins Style nach vorne um wenigstens die letzten Stationen sitzend zu verbringen.
Tja dies war die FOSDEM 2014.
TL;DR
War eigentlich wie ich es mir erwartet habe. Schn�de Vortr�ge doch ne Menge Zeit zum coden, Server fixxen und so weiter.
Doing the final touch
Blinkybugs was the topic of today’s workshop at Esch/Alzette.
Preparing the hardware
Adjusting, adjusting…
Together with youngsters, GRL Luxembourg helped them create their own bug.
We’ll be back tomorrow for some more LEDArt…
February 8, 2013
Following members attended the meeting :
All members were elected unanimously to be part of the organizational committee. Charges within the committee were distributed as follows :
The member fee was unanimously decided to be 120,00€ per whole year, payable on a yearly base. The committee withholds itself a certain flexibility to request the yearly fees from their members.
Next projects will include the commune of Esch/Alzette, where we will be featuring a lazortag workshop on “Vokanz doheem” during Summer 2013. More details will follow.
Nearly every musician has a favorite musical scale. Yngwie Malmsteen has the harmonic minor scale and Steve Vai has the lydian scale. Even I have a favorite musical scale, which is the bebop dominant scale, especially the D-BeBop dominant scale.
First of all, here is a table with all the notes, which are in the bebop dominant scale:
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | b7 | 7 |
| A | B | C# | D | E | F# | G | G# |
| A# | C | D | D# | F | G | G# | A |
| B | C# | D# | E | F# | G# | A | A# |
| C | D | E | F | G | A | A# | B |
| C# | D# | F | F# | G# | A# | B | C |
| D | E | F# | G | A | B | C | C# |
| D# | F | G | G# | A# | C | C# | D |
| E | F# | G# | A | B | C# | D | D# |
| F | G | A | A# | C | D | D# | E |
| F# | G# | A# | B | C# | D# | E | F |
| G | A | B | C | D | E | F | F# |
| G# | A# | C | C# | D# | F | F# | G |
So as you see, the bebop dominant scale is a octatonic, so with 8 notes, scale. It is basically a major scale with an minor seventh added. But you could also look at it like a mixolydian scale with an major seventh added.
As I play the guitar, the D bebop dominant scale is quite handy. I like it as I can play the wonderful powerchord progression G5 F#5 E5, but I also can play a C5. This is why I like the D bebop dominant scale. If you look at it, you see that you have two tritones in it. From 3 - b7 and from 4 - 7. So in the D bebop dominant scale: F# - C and G - C#, which is also quite handy for metal guitar players.
Communication is something, that everybody needs. But I don’t want to talk about the absurdity of language but about the complexity of the setup of my communication network. This is so, because I want to ensure my privacy. Also I want to use this on every machine I own, so I don’t have to go through the configuration process every time.
I’ve made an network diagram to explain it:
As you see, in this diagram I use 3 machines. First my desktop pc, named Evolution. Secondly, Darwin, my laptop, and Tortuga my raspberry pi, which is the server.
On the raspberry, I have ZNC, an IRC bouncer, and BitlBee, an XMPP to IRC gateway, running.
First of all, I configured BitlBee, to connect to my 4 XMPP servers. All these connection use SSL, to ensure my privacy, but I also use OTR on them to encrypt my messages. BitlBee also connect to Twitter and identi.ca via OAuth, but I don’t use them.
Then I’ve configured ZNC, to connect to 5 IRC servers, also via SSL. Even if the SSL connection to BitlBee is useless, but I thought why not?
Last but not least, I’ve configured Weechat to connect to my ZNC, also via SSL. I could optimize this by installing Weechat on my raspberry pi and then connect via SSH.
Well, there maybe some negative points in this setup. One is mainly, that I don’t have tested if file transfer over XMPP works. I know that BitlBee supports it, but I see the problem in this specific setup, as all of this is running on my server.
Another problem is, that I’m marked as online in XMPP, even if I’m not there, but I’ve used here a simple solution. ZNC is sending a automessage, if I’m not connected to it. Some people don’t like this behaviour, but I don’t bother.
See you soon, the_metalgamer
Das ist nenn ich ne Schüssel voll Ananas creme :)
Heute gibs mal was vom Chinesen! Warum? Irgendwie mag jeder den ich kenne Chinesisches Essen. Ist auch nicht verwerflich, denn es ist eine fantastische Küche mit richtig geilen Gewürzen und Saucen. Und da dachte ich mir, ich poste euch mal ein einfaches Rezept das ich zum Beispiel heute noch gemacht habe.
Was brauche ich?
Wer es wagt dieses Rezept in einer herkömmlichen Pfanne zu kochen, der gehört gekreuzigt! Ihr nehmt nen Wok dafür!!!
Wir fangen damit an, dass wir unsere Zwiebel und die Knoblauchzehe klein hacken und erstmal bei Seite legen.
Dann erhitzen wir den Wok auf höchster Stufe und geben das Öl hinzu. Folgend werden die Zwiebeln und der Knoblauch in den Wok getan und glasig gebraten.
Währendem schneiden wir das Rindfleisch in kleine, mundgerechte Happen und würzen es nochmal mit Pfeffer und Salz. Nun stellen wir das erstmal bei Seite. Jetzt wird ein Topf mit Wasser erhitzt und die Eiernudeln kommen hinein, wenn das Wasser kocht. Vergesst nicht etwas Salz ins Wasser zu tun!
Wenn jetzt Zwiebel und Co glasig sind, kommt das Fleisch hinzu. Vergesst nicht immer gut zu rühren.
Nun haben wir Zeit für das Herzsstück des Gerichts! Wir nehmen eine kleine Schüssel und bereiten die Sosse vor. Dazu vermischen wir 4 EL Kokosmilch, 1 EL Reisessig, 1 EL Sojasauce, 1 TL Zucker sowie 1 TL Sambal Oelek und 1 EL Hoisin Sauce. Wenn nun das Fleisch angebräunt ist, geben wir die Sosse hinzu. Jetzt heisst es ständig umrühren!
Herkömmliche Eiernudeln müssten nach 4 Minuten fertig gekocht sein. Wenn dies der Fall ist, dann geben wir die Nudeln mit in den Wok und vermengen alles gut. Auf die Nudeln kommt je nach Geschmack etwas Nasi Goreng. Nun das Ganze noch 2-3 Minuten köcheln lassen. Danach vom Herd nehmen und servieren!
Guten Appetit!
Tipp:
Das hier ist die absolute Basis version. Viel besser schmeckt es wenn man Frühlingszwiebeln nimmt und noch etwa 200 g Bohnensprossen. Wer mag kann sich noch ne Paprika klein schneiden und dazu geben!
An illustration depicting the state of affairs in our current understanding of particle physics. Time to explore the exotic lands!
The picture above is a web made of wire straps.
One exhibit was really awesome! If you stood below the sprinklers with an umbrella, you'd hear 8-bit music as produced by the frequency of the water being released. The umbrella's tissue serves as a simple membrane and produces astonishingly clear sounds.
Cyberarts Festival
Tantalum Memorial - Residue (website)
Relay station for a social phone network used by the congolese diaspora in London.
And yes, though this thing is not your most recent asterisk pbx, it actually worked and was relaying calls for people on that network. From the project's website:
"'Tantalum Memorial' is a series of telephony-based memorials by the artists group Harwood, Wright, Yokokoji, to the people who have died as a result of the “coltan wars” in the Congo. The installation is constructed out of electromagnetic Strowger switches – the basis of the first automatic telephone exchange invented in 1888. The title of the work refers to the metal tantalum, an essential component of mobile phones"
"littleBits is an opensource library of discrete electronic components pre-assembled in tiny circuit boards. Just as Legos allow you to create complex structures with very little engineering knowledge, littleBits are simple, intuitive, space-sensitive blocks that make prototyping with sophisticated electronics a matter of snapping small magnets together. With a growing number of available modules, littleBits aims to move electronics from late stages of the design process to its earliest ones, and from the hands of experts, to those of artists, makers and designers."
Various impressions from Linz
One thing that I noticed already on Sunday were these "stencils". Only, it only came to me on Monday though that these weren't your ordinary stencils. What is so uncommon here is that the stencils are actually areas that are cleaner than the area around it. So what you see here is kind of a 'cleaner's graffiti'. (No, I'm in no way affiliated to Mazda or any other automobile manufacturer)
Finally, a last picture of the "Fassadenfestival":
by Kwisatz (noreply@blogger.com) at September 08, 2009 10:39 AM
Dylan Tweney wrote a fantastic article on Wired.com about hackerspaces in the US. NYCResistor was profiled along with Hack DC and Noisebridge. A fun and interesting read…
While many movements begin in obscurity, hackers are unanimous about the birth of U.S. hacker spaces: August, 2007 when U.S. hackers Bre Pettis, Nicholas Farr, Mitch Altman and others visited Germany on a geeky field trip called Hackers on a Plane.
“It’s almost a Fight Club for nerds,” says Nick Bilton of his hacker space, NYC Resistor in Brooklyn, New York…
DIY Freaks Flock to ‘Hacker Spaces’ Worldwide, by Dylan Tweney
[Reposted from hackerspaces]